Peace With God

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; ...

There is more to this passage of scripture but I want to expound a little on the first three verses of Romans, chapter 5. We have learned from my previous blogging that faith is a persuasion (refer back to blogs between Jan 19 & 21).  Paul states that we have been justified or made righteous by the persuasions of our heart and those persuasions are based on knowing what God has done for us through our Lord Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.

This persuasion causes us to have "peace" with God, as Paul declares in this passage. The Greek word for "peace" here is "eirene" which is from the primary verb "eirō", which means "to join"; (literally or figuratively); by implication prosperity: - one or oneness, peace, quietness, rest; set at one again.

 This faith or persuasion that we are justified (made right with God), joins us to Him, setting us "at one again" with Him, like it was before Adam sinned.  He walked in the cool of the day with God, fellowshipping with the One Who created the universe. 

Paul goes on to say that through Christ we also have access by our persuasions of God's goodness into this GRACE.  The word "grace" here is the Greek word "charis"  which is "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life of the individual".  In other words, because of what Christ did for us, we are at peace with God and this revelation has a divine influence of gratitude in our hearts which is reflected in our lives as we remain aware that we are in right standing with God; the fact that He loves us and gave His all for us. This is what "walking in the Spirit" is referring to. Walking in the awareness of God's Spirit indwelling us and being mindful of our righteousness in Christ and not our sin-nature (flesh).

Furthermore, verse two goes on to say this divine influence produces a hope in us. You may recall that the word hope means "a joyful, confident, expectation of good.  Of course this grace would produce a joyful confident expectation of good. God said that He has established in us, a New Covenant, a better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6)

Now the next part is what I like. Paul goes on to say that this hope causes us to "glory in tribulations".  I used to have trouble with this. Who wants to look forward to pain and hurt and trouble?  That is what I thought "tribulations" were. Well that word "trribulation is also translated as "pressure". Now I can handle pressure much better than pain and hurt and trouble. Jesus said, in this world we will have tribulations (pressure) and then He said BUT.... But what?  BUT - BE OF GOOD CHEER FOR I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD. So, He is saying that He has overcome these pressures for us. 

Now verse three goes on to say that pressure produces patience. Okay, here is another word that doesn't sound like it would be fun.  Patience can produce more troubling thoughts because it usuallly means we are learning to wait for something that we wish would arrive sooner than later.  Well, once again, if we look at the word "patience" in the context of this verse which is talking about faith and grace, and joyful, confident expectations of good, we find that the word "patience" is the Greek word "hupomone" which means a cheerful or hopeful endurance or constancy. A cheerful; hopeful endurance or constancy?  I never thought of patience in so positive a light as this. But this kind of patience manifests in our hearts when we know that God is on our side and He has already sent His son to pay the price for us so that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)

 Let's go one further; this cheerful or hopeful endurance produces an "experience"; the Greek word here for "experience" means "trustiness"; proof. 

In other words, when the persuasions of our heart reveal our right-standing with God it produces a peace  in us and this peace produces a divine influence in our heart that causes us to have a joyful, confident expectation of good in our lives. Paul goes on to say that this expectation of good manifests in our hearts when pressure tries to come against us. And as we remain confident in our expectation of good, the divine influence in our heart is a cheerful and hopeful endurance against that pressure which sets the stage for an experience that proves out God's goodness and trustworthiness!

We no longer need to fear tribulations or God's plan to develop patience in us.  Why?  Because His Yoke is easy and His burden is light. He has made a way of escape for us from the pressures and trials of this life and His word promises us a good outcome!  Hallelujah!